Confessions of a grey-headed reporter

Daily Archives: April 2, 2008

We haven’t spoken with her. But we surmise that when WAGA reporter Stacy Elgin walked into the TV station Wednesday morning, she heard something like this: “Stacy. Last night, WSB’s Richard Elliott had a relative of one of the victims from the awful fatal wreck Monday on I-85. She was very emotional. We didn’t have it. We need you to get that for us for tonight’s show.” Elgin, knowing the likelihood of repeating that particular “get” was slim, made the call nonetheless. And Elgin got lucky, at least as luck is defined within the world of local TV news. The same woman appeared on WAGA’s news one day later. Though not as hysterical, the woman was emotional and compelling. And though they got beaten, the folks who produce WAGA’s news adequately played catch-up.

Most times, the grief-stricken kinfolk of the abruptly-killed want nothing to do with TV news. But occasionally, they find that it’s therapeutic to speak publicly about their loved ones. Rarely do they do it twice, the second time for the benefit of a TV station that saw it first on the broadcast of a competitor.

WAGA also bit on the offer to tag along on Governor Perdue’s junket to China. Anchor Russ Spencer produced a somewhat lengthy piece in Shanghai and Beijing. Spencer has done better work than this. The story showed the sights of Shanghai, and used an Atlanta real estate developer as the thread. But it was still– very clinical.Spencer’s blog is more interesting than the story he produced Tuesday at 6pm.

Spencer’s story had — count ’em– four standups. What it needed was a translator, so that Spencer could talk to some actual Chinese folk. Even some natural sound in a market or some other public place would have given the story some needed flavor. Don’t know if the government is shadowing his camera crew or approving his feeds– his blog doesn’t say, unfortunately– but he’s got an opportunity to address some interesting issues, like Tibet, Taiwan and the ’08 Olympics.

We missed WSB’s coverage of the same story at 5pm. Again, it’s nowhere to be found on 2’s website. Go figure.